1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic systems and, more particularly, to systems which simulate large complex operational equipment.
A simulator which is designed for training purposes in general comprises four major components. These components are the simulation or master computer in which the portion of the system being simulated is represented in mathematical form and which utilizes input data to produce output data according to the performance of that portion of the system being simulated. A second portion of a training simulator can be called the environment. This is that area where the trainee is situated. In most training simulators the environment is made as nearly a duplicate of the actual environment in which the operator will later find himself as possible. This environment can be the cab of a railroad engine, the cockpit of an airplane, the bridge of a ship, or the control room of a power plant. Between the master computer and the environment there is usually provided some sort of interface which translates the information coming from the computer into the form to be utilized by the environment and that information coming from the environment into the form to be used by the computer. In addition to the major three components, the training simulator also includes an instructor station with suitable peripheral input and output equipment to enable an instructor to monitor the progress of the trainee and to provide initial or malfunction conditions with which the trainee must contend.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The system described above has been the typical training simulator which has been designed and constructed in the past. Most simulators today utilize digital computers which perform more and more of the representations of the portion of the system being simulated. In other words, less and less hardware is being used to simulate. Hardware is readily broken up into electrical or mechanical components, each performing its own task. Each of these components can be checked out and tested individually and separately as they are constructed to ensure proper operation of the individual hardware components. Unfortunately, the computer programs are not so easily tested or corrected. In the prior art it was quite common to copy the procedures earlier used with hardware. That is, the computer programs were broken down into individual component programs which were designed and constructed separately and individually. The individual computer programs were then checked in a house computer to see whether they, individually, performed the functions which they were supposed to perform. Once the entire program was assembled in the simulation computer, however, the entire system had to be checked all over again. Too often errors were found in addressing, in programming and routines, in the math modeling, and in the manner in which the computer output data was utilized to control the instruments in the environment.